Let no corporation be harmed...

I will spend the night on a tarmac for a free ticket. Big deal. What a bunch of whining pussies.

FWTHOM you must not travel as much as I do. I wouldn't stand in line at a 7-11 for a free ticket to anywhere. Flying is a giant pain in the ___ (you know).. but necessary for many of us.

#2 | Posted by fwthom

Free Wangle Thom!

Here's a tip if you ever find yourself in a situation like this.

Chest pains.

Just tell the flight attendants, that your suffering chest pains, and having difficulty breathing, and you will be off the plane in no time.

Or set the plane on fire.

The airlines have been lucky so far, but the law of averages will catch up with them sooner or later. Someone will die of a heart attack in one of these planes, or a pregnant woman will go into premature labor or something, and the resulting lawsuit will be what begins to turn things around.

Corporate America doesn't listen to common sense, and doesn't pay any more attention to laws than is strictly necessary. Only payouts get their attention.

They should be sued for false imprisonment. Being held against your will because the crew is gone for the night...

Open the door I'll jump out, get a motel room and see you in the morning...

The chest pain idea is a good one, I will remember that...

Flying is a giant pain in the ___ (you know).. but necessary for many of us.

#3 | Posted by nmg_no

Ain't that the truth. I wouldn't fly anywhere I could drive in a reasonable amount of time while I was on vacation.

2 to 3 hours at the first airport. 1 to 3 hours layover on plane changes. Destroyed luggage. Lost luggage. A bunch of little kids screaming and kicking the seat backs. NO peanuts anymore. 1/2 to 1 hour getting your luggage at the destination. It takes a day to go anyplace with a plane change and getting a rental car. You can have all that you want.

I love flying.
I've been a pilot since 1967; It's the airlines that suck.

Not just the wait...

overflowing toiltes, etc. Oh the humanity!

#7

Da Ho be right.

Oh yeah,a nw flag too.

After reading this, I was on the passengers' side. That said, change a few variables, and then look at it again.

1: The plane had to land in Rochester due to bad weather in Minneapolis. That's an act of God and unavoidable. What if they had tried to land in Minneapolis and had an accident? This article would have been about airline safety, greed, lawsuits, etc.

2: What if passengers left the plane, entered the terminal, and then returned to the plane without TSA screening? The airline would have been fined - pilots too maybe. What if something terrible happened after reboarding - something that could have been prevented by TSA screening? This article would have been about airline negligence.

If you disagree, read the article's last three sentences and think about "so many variables at play and "variety of potential catastrophies that could have happened".

the best thing about planes are the stewardesses, but still I prefer a fast car. still, if they could design a fast car with an aisle running down the middle with a scantily clad female walking up and down serving me drinks while I shifted into high gear I'd take it...

Let no corporation be harmed...

#1 | Posted by Shawn

This has very little to do with Corporations and everything to do with the Federal Government!

if they could design a fast car with an aisle running down the middle with a scantily clad female walking up and down serving me drinks while I shifted into high gear I'd take it...

#14 | Posted by NerfHerder

Bet you can't wait to get your driver's license.

"Bet you can't wait to get your driver's license."

Come wash my car sometime Eddie so I can walk my dog over to yer mother's house so he can screw her. i'll pay you TWO wooden nickels!

Once in Miami after a cruise we stepped off two planes in a row, got 4 R/T tickets and got home 3 hours late.

Once traveling for the government my flight was delated 8 hours and I was later paid double time for each hour. My boss who was traveling with me got jack shit.

I flew to London, England via Iceland on a propeller plane (Aer Lingus).

Once I was flying west from Cleveland, Ohio on a clear night south of Toledo I could see the lights and north of that I could see the lights from Detroit. It was beautiful.

I love flying. They could do barrel rolls and I wouldn't care.

This has very little to do with Corporations and everything to do with the Federal Government!

-----------

Ah, another imbecile who thinks corporations aren't government. Look up: corporate person.

2: What if passengers left the plane, entered the terminal, and then returned to the plane without TSA screening? The airline would have been fined - pilots too maybe. What if something terrible happened after reboarding - something that could have been prevented by TSA screening? This article would have been about airline negligence.
#13 | POSTED BY JUSTICEFORALL AT 2009-08-21 08:43 PM | REPLY | FLAG:

Not factual.

if they do not leave the area behind the checkpoint they can reboard any plane. TSA does not need to check them again.

its on their website.

Valisk - You're right in that TSA does not need to recheck passengers IF the airport is set up for this. Article states, "Actually, security regulations ALLOW (emphasis mine) for deplaning passengers to be kept in a separate "sterile" area..."
"Allow" doesn't mean the airport actually has a sterile area. (I've never been there.)

Based on this article's content alone, it's highly unlikely they do.
The AP writer didn't mention it.
Sec LaHood didn't mention it.
The airport was closed.

I think the whole affair was a series of unfortunate events compounded by very reasonable safety regulations.
Follow this: Plane couldn't land in Rochester due to thunderstorms. (flight safety)
Passengers couldn't deplane in the rain without a jetbridge. (Someone might have slipped and sued.)
Original flight crew couldn't complete flight because they had worked too many hours. (flight safety - Who wants a pilot who has been awake all night?)

We are becoming a nation were paranoia overrules common sense and simple human compassion.

OCU

The airport was closed.

I would have never believed such a thing except that when I got to the airport in Kuai'i at six in the morning and all the lights were out

I would have never believed such a thing except that when I got to the airport in Kuai'i at six in the morning and all the lights were out

My dad was telling me a funny story once. He was on a transpacific flight to Australia. The 747 got lower on fuel than was allowable, so the pilot landed somewhere (one of those pacific islands with an airport big enough to handle a 747) in the middle of the night. I guess the pilot can remotely turn on the runway lights, but when he landed, the terminal and tower were completely dark.

My dad said that the pilot then opened a door in the belly of the plane and got out via a ladder. They saw him walk up to the terminal and use a phone. SHortly thereafter a refueling crew came and refueled the plane.

My dad jokingly wondered what would have happened if the pilot didn't have a quarter.

My dad jokingly wondered what would have happened if the pilot didn't have a quarter.

Grab a siphon hose and look a fueled plane?

I could see the lights and north of that I could see the lights from Detroit. It was beautiful.

Detroit and beautiful have never been used in the same sentence before...a first!

sue

I think if ever in that situation I'd call orchestrate a mass 911 call to request rescue

- IF the captain (& crew) allowed a dangerous OR ridiculous situation to occur or continue -
by definition they have demonstrated "unfit for command"

that flight could not legitimately continue anyways

"If you disagree, read the article's last three sentences and think about "so many variables at play and "variety of potential catastrophies that could have happened"."

Justice:

All of your variables fall into the category of "shit happens." The failure here is to design the system to deal with the situation when shit happens.

None of the things you mention are uncommon, and I'm willing to bet that people smart enough to run airports could design a way to deal with them without leaving passengers on the tarmac for hours and hours. Failure to do so will, one day, lead to serious harm to passengers.

Christmas/New Years, 1998-99, the same thing happened, only it was a snow storm that closed the Detroit airport, but not before Northwest Airlines managed to load all of their planes and move them away from the gates so that more flights could be loaded and officially 'depart', some of this continuing even after the airport authorities had halted flight operations, but Northwest continued 'operations' as if nothing had happened not telling passengers that their flights were not actually going to be able to take off. In the end a dozen or so planes sat overnight in the cold, full of passengers, some of them only a 100 feet or so from a gate, without being allowed back in. One passenger even called his lawyer who contacted the airline/airport and threatened them with a lawsuit unless they at least allowed the passengers to deplane.

My wife and I had flown into Detroit for the holidays, but we were lucky as we flew on American and they called us as soon as it became obvious what was happening with the storm and told us to sit tight and that they would call back when they could reschedule out flights home, which ended up being 3 days later, but at least we stayed warm and comfortable (although we did pretty much eat and drink my wife's sister and her husbands house empty as we were also snowed in and it took those same 3 days before he could get his driveway plowed out).